"A Scandal in Bohemia" and Sherlock Holmes's Ultimate Mystery Solved

PASCALE KRUMM

IN "A SCANDAL IN BOHEMIA," the first Sherlock Holmes story, published in

1891, Holmes is upstaged and tricked, for the first and the last time, by a woman.'
The story involves the beautiful and cunning Irene Adler, a retired opera singer and
"well-known adventuress"^ and the hapless King of Bohemia, her former lover. The
Monarch plans to marry someone of his own rank: consequently, Ms Adler
threatens to ruin his betrothal by exhibiting a compromising photograph of the
couple. The King hires Holmes to find the ruinous evidence, and using one of his
famous schemes the detective discovers the exact location of the photo in Adler's
sitting room. Both men return the next morning to retrieve the object, only to find
Adler and the photograph gone. She has, however, left a snapshot of herself and a
letter for Holmes, promising never to release the damaging item. This is the only
time when "the best plans of Mr. Sherlock Holmes were beaten by a woman's wit."

Upon learning that he has been fooled by a woman, Holmes is embarrassingly

"white with chagrin and surprise," an odd and uncharacteristically emotional
reaction from the brightest detective in the country, known for his coolness and
composure. The trauma and the impact of that failure are so great on Holmes that,
years later, he still cannot bring himself to refer to Adler by name, calling her "the
woman" instead. At the close of the case. Holmes also behaves strangely when, in
an unusually sentimental gesture, he asks to keep the photograph of Adler as
payment of services rendered, in lieu of a valuable emerald ring. This selfless
gesture is even more extraordinary when one remembers how adamant Holmes had
been about payment at the beginning of the story. When he first sees the King, the
detective remarks that "there's money in this case;" the fee is then discussed with
great intensity as Holmes inquires "as to money?" to which the Sovereign replies,
"you have carte blanche.... I would give one of the provinces of my kingdom to
have that photograph." Holmes insists "and for present expenses?" He then gets
"three hundred pounds in gold and seven hundred in notes."' The request seems
even stranger as Holmes already possesses a memento of Adler: when he served as
a surprise witness to her hasty marriage "the bride gave me a sovereign, and I mean
to wear it on my watch-chain in memory of the occasion."
But let us examine Irene Adler more in depth. In light of the common Victorian
perception of woman as either housewife or harlot, Adler obviously belongs in the
second category and thus quite literally epitomizes the nineteenth-century myth of
the femme fatale, as "she was a lovely woman, with a face that a man might die
for."^ Nineteenth-century woman is seen as alien and alienating, an outsider, or, to
use Freud's term, "a dark continent," and the element of foreignness, of otherness
always associated with that type of woman, is a recurring theme in "A Scandal in
Bohemia."^ Most obviously, Adler was "born in New Jersey in the year 1858,"''
and has lived in severed European cities. Her romances similarly have an
international flair; she had an affair with a German heir, and later married a British
lawyer. In fact, the story is peppered with references to foreign places, from
Bohemia to Warsaw. On a more subtle level, Adler's alien status comes out doubly
in her name, as Adler is German and means eagle; she is thus not only associated
with a different nation but a different species. Adler's residence also reinforces the
animal connotation, as she lives on Serpentine Avenue, a detail referred to on
countless occasions.

Adler's menacing nature is likewise revealed through a duality of female physiology

and male psychology. The King remarks that "she has the face of the most beautiful
of women, and the mind of the most resolute of men."' She also freely crosses
gender barriers by wearing men's clothing, confessing that "male costume is nothing
new to me. I often take advantage of the freedom which it gives."" Aside from the
benefit mentioned, the disguise affords Adler something even more important:
power. As Jasmine Yong Hall notes, "women in the Holmes stories . . . are a
conduit for male power. As the object of sexual dominance, they are necessary to
release that power. But they do not acquire power themselves; it is, instead, passed
on to Holmes." Women are powerless entities in all stories, except in "A Scandal in
Bohemia," where Adler's active male role gives rise to her empowerment; as Adler
takes center stage "she eclipses and predominates the whole of her sex."' Holmes
further notes her universal mesmerizing effect: "she has turned all the men's heads
down in that part. She is the daintiest thing under a bonnet on this planet.'' Adler is
truly a unique woman, and the King's laudatory cry of "What a womanoh, what a
woman!" is also shared by Holmes. As Watson remarks, "there was but one woman
for him, and that woman was the late Irene Adler."
The powerful combination of foreign-alien, human-animal and male-female
elements render Adler even more complex and incomprehensible to Holmes, who
notes that "women are naturally secretive, and they like to do their own secreting."
Yet, in a blatant show of contradiction, the male protagonists are the ones hiding
behind a constant veil of secrecy: Holmes himself confesses that he aims to draw
"the veil from men's motives and actions." Watson, while covertly plotting against
Adler, is overcome with guilt and frets that '1 never felt more heartily ashamed of
myself in my life than when I saw the beautiful creature against whom I was
conspiring."^ The King at first also hides his face and his true identity, traveling
"incognito from Prague," wearing "a black wizard mask" and purporting to be one
Count Von Kramm. Finally, Holmes, The Master of Secrecy, first refuses to
disclose his modus operandi to Watson, then masquerades as a beggar and a
clergyman. Both genders use camouflage, yet there are crucial differences. Adler
changes her identity to her clear advantage, realizing that only a male disguise can
afford her freedom and power, thereby (temporarily) enhancing her status. The
men, on the other hand, are demeaned and lowered by their disguises: Watson feels
guilt and shame; the Sovereign's cover demotes his regal status; and Holmes's
costumes are always a tool of deception, turning him into a lowly trickster figure.
As Pasquale Accardo notes in Diagnosis and Deception, "these carefully crafted
alternative personae always seem to have something criminal about them: their
purpose is concealment, trickery, deceit.''

"A Scandal in Bohemia" relies on an initial displacement from male to female, as a

woman takes the lead, eclipses and defeats the males in the story. But a second
similar shift occurs, this time involving the detective; thus the duality and deception
first revolving around Adler are later shifted onto Holmes. A close analysis of the
story reveals a surprising set of contradictions and paradoxes in the lead male
character. The detective is introduced as "the most perfect reasoning and observing
machine," and "all emotions . . . were abhorrent to his cold, precise, but admirably
balanced mind; "yet every one of these terms is later subverted, emphasizing the
human fallible side of the character, which we rarely get to see again in later stories.
The detective does show emotion (hate) as he "loathed every form of society.'' A
more positive, almost sentimental side also comes out, as Hohnes's coldness is
disproved by the two keepsakes. His precision is refuted by his numerous
miscalculations; and finally his admirably balanced mind is negated by his "drug-
created dreams."

Other instances of binary oppositions involving Holmes abound. The King notes
that the person who was "depicted to him as the most incisive reasoner and most
energetic agent in Europe" is a languid, lounging figure." Holmes reprimands
Watson, remarking that "you see, but you do not observe. . . . I have both seen and
observed." Yet later the critic fails to apply his own tactic to the case at hand, for
had he "seen and observed" he would have recognized Adler in disguise, and
deduced her plans to flee. Furthermore, when Holmes and his client pay an early
surprise visit to Adler in order surreptitiously to retrieve the picture, the detective
confidently speculates that hy the time Adler comes down to greet them "she may
find neither us nor the photograph;" but instead of fooling Adler, they are fooled by
her, as she has, by that time, long left the country with the evidence.

Holmes is clearly off-balance and decentered, suffering from a loss of power which
has been transferred to Adler. His eccentricity is played out on two levels. His
"Bohemian soul,"^' his odd personality and his unusual behavior fit the common
dictionary definition of an eccentric. But he also fits the second definition of the
term, meaning off-center; he is eccentric (removed from the center) as opposed to
concentric. For instance, in A Study in Scarlet (the first Holmes novella) Holmes
describes himself this way, as "the only one in the world. I'm a consulting
detective." The decentering state is repeated in "A Scandal in Bohemia" (the first
Holmes short story). Holmes's uncharacteristic reversal from reasoned to
unreasoned mind, from objective fact finding to subjective guessing is further
emphasized by the shift from winning to losing. "A Scandal in Bohemia" is the first
and only story where Holmes is defeated by anyone. Although he does not
technically lose the case since the initial purpose, the non-exposure of the scandal,
is achieved, it remains nevertheless a personal failure for Holmes for success is
accomplished not on the detective's but on Adler's terms.

The question is: why is this Victorian sleuth fooled by anyone at all, since he boasts
a keen and infallible, although abstract, understanding of the human psyche? But
therein lies the answer. He fails to win this case, for his opponent is someone whose
mind he cannot understand. Professor Moriarty, for example, in many ways a darker
alter-ego of Holmes, is the one criminal the detective can deal with. In "Charles
Augustus Milverton" Holmes even confesses that he himself "would have made a
highly efficient criminal." Holmes's attitude towards Adler is, on the contrary, based
on difference, as she is, by virtue of her gender, behaviorally and genetically other
and therefore inscrutable (according to Victorian standards). Furthermore, as a
woman Adler does not play by the (male) rules. Holmes points this out in some
sweeping generalizations: "women are never to be entirely trusted-not the best of
them"; he further states that he is "not a whole-souled admirer of womankind"; "he
disliked and distrusted the sex," for "one of the most dangerous classes in the world
...is the drifting and friendless woman." All this testifies to his "aversion to
women."

Holmes's inability to understand woman is due to the element of difference, of

otherness, which ties in with the outsider theme noted earlier. Time and again he
will ponder the enigma of the fem.ale gender, as "woman's heart and mind are
insoluble puzzles to the male," echoing Freud (another detective of sorts), who
remarked that "throughout history people have knocked their heads against the
riddle of the nature of femininity." For Holmes, Woman, embodied by Adler, is a
mystery wrapped in a riddle, an observation later made famous by Freud's clich of
"what does a woman want?" All this affords the detective a convenient explanation
for his defeat, for seen in this light, the case appears doomed from the outset, since
Holmes is faced with his own riddle of the Sphinx. Adler's dual female-animal
(eagle) attributes reinforce her monstrous affiliation to the winged Sphinx. As
Holmes is unable to solve the riddle of the case, and of woman, all his subsequent
adventures (especially the ones involving female leads) may be interpreted as an
attempt, a quest, to unravel the enigma of the Adler Sphinx.

Holmes's incomprehension of Adler is shown throughout the case, as he makes an

unusual number of mistakes, miscalculations and false assumptions. His first
remark upon seeing the Monsirch is "there's money in this case, Watson, if there is
nothing else" (emphasis added). The latter part of the sentence foreshadows the
detective's blindness (linking him even more to the Sphinx as a helpless Oedipus
figure), since the case is precisely not about money but about the undefined else,
which will turn out to be the enigma of Woman. Throughout the investigation,
Holmes will consistently ignore or misread important clues, which is striking and
puzzling, when one remembers the meticulous deductions he routinely makes at the
start of any given case. This is emphasized when he miserably fails to pick up on
easy and obvious clues concerning Adler, and at the same time makes accurate yet
useless (for the case at hand) inferences about Watson's life. This causes the doctor
to remark that "you would certainly have been burned, had you lived a few
centuries ago." Having a file on Adler, and knowing her to be an exceptionally
shrewd woman, Holmes should be wary, and deduce that she may well be aware of
the Monarch's plans. Yet Holmes fails to make that simple analysis, which then
costs him the case. As soon as Adler discovers the plot, she follows the detective
home and boldly hails him good night, whereupon the otherwise perspicacious
Holmes pathetically ponders, "I wonder who the deuce that could have been." The
detective is literally unable to read, or decode, the signs of the female body, and, as
Rosemary Jann comments, "feminine sexuality eludes the rational solution of
mystery promised by the Holmes stories."

But, more importantly, in his quest, the detective fails to ask some crucial questions.
For example, when the King requests "absolute secrecy for two years" in the matter,
no reason is given, and Holmes does not question the moratorium. Similarly, when
Holmes witnesses an unexpected and singular string of events, culminating in
Adler's marriage to Norton, he does not wonder why the man is so agitated, why
there is such a hasty wedding, or why the newlyweds go their separate ways right
after the ceremony. If Holmes had asked, he may have realized, or at least
speculated, that the bizarre incidents were possibly related to Holmes himself. The
couple may have discovered the detective's involvement in the case, thus
accelerating their plans and forcing them into a rushed marriage and a precipitous
departure. Holmes's failure to raise questions and seek answers dooms him, as it did
other heroes before him.

In the final analysis, and contrary to the King's assertion, the case is a failure for
Holmes, as he becomes a literal and metaphorical fallen hero; he literally falls to the
ground to attract Adler's attention, and he metaphorically falls into her trap. But his
true downfall stems from his fatal flaw, his hubris. Watson remarks "so accustomed
was I to his invariable success that the very possibility of his failing had ceased to
enter into my head." Overconfidence (reinforced by the assumption that a female
cannot possibly outsmart him anyway), and not Adler's exceptional cleverness, is
what will cause Holmes to lose the case. The detective's tragic downfall (to stay in
the realm of the mythical) is reinforced by the underl5dng theme of death, an
unusual reference since the case does not involve a brutal crime. Adler is first
introduced as "the late Irene Adler," yet we never learn the cause of death, and
although the relevance of this information is unclear at first, its significance will
soon be brought to light. Death is also used idiomatically in describing Adler, "a
lovely woman, with a face that a man might die for." Holmes, in his clever mise-en-
scene in front of Adler's house, is initially left for dead until someone shouts "he'll
be gone before you can get him to hospital." Furthermore, when Holmes
conjectures on the provenance of the Monarch's writing paper, he oddly concludes
that it is made "not far from Carlsbad. Remarkable as being the scene of the death
of Wallenstein.''

All the characters in "A Scandal in Bohemia" also suffer a metaphorical or

symbolic death (or loss). Adler buries her old life and becomes a respectable
married woman; the Monarch mourns the loss of a potentially "admirable queen;"
Watson deserts his wife once more to be with Holmes (he mentions that "I slept at
Baker Street that night"); Holmes, losing a case for the first time in his career,
suffers the deepest loss of all, for the moral wounds he incurs will remain with him
forever. But, predictably, images of death are followed by images of birth or rebirth,
as symbolized by the timetable of the story. Holmes meets the Ruler on the evening
of 20 March 1888, and Adler the next day, the first day of Spring. This date
suggests both a death and a rebirth, a renewal, as all the protagonists lives will be
forever altered from then on. Adler starts a new life with a new husband in a new
country; the King is finally able to marry freely; Holmes and Watson are set for
other successful adventures.

The reversal and decentering taking place in "A Scandal in Bohemia" (the male
world order turned upside down by foreign classless female), followed by a
recentering (the original British upper-class male world order restored in the end), is
the embodiment, the illustration of nineteenth- century societal views, of its
obsessions, its fears of chaos. As Rosemary Jenn notes, "behind the almost
compulsive insistence on orderliness in the Holmes stories we can feel the anxious
pressure of instability and disorder." The one common denominator is of course
Woman, who is the catalyst, the alpha and the omega of fear. Fear, in this case fear
of Woman, is conquered (but not without pain or cost) by Holmes's positivism
mixed with a strong dose of misogyny. Chaos (i.e. Woman) is a brief but powerful
threat, yet order is ultimately reinstated; and this is achieved through not one but
several means, as the following examples will demonstrate.

In the concluding moments, despite all evidence to the contrary, the Monarch
belabors the semi-success of the case (see note 50). But more importantly, midway
through the story, Adler gets married, and two details are greatly relevant: the
church wedding and the groom's profession, as these elements serve as a double
legitimating of the former "adventuress." First, the marriage changes her status from
harlot to housewife, the religious ceremony (more so than a civil one) sanctifying
Adler as a respectable woman. Second, she marries a respectable lawyer, the
epitome of law and order, which further seals and establishes her new societal
status. Through her marriage, Irene Adler Norton acquires legitimacy in the eyes of
God and Men and as such, she is no longer a threat to society in general, or to the
King in particular. Yet, there will always remain doubts find the possibility of
chaos, as illustrated by Adler's final warning: "I keep it [the photograph] only to
safeguard myself, and to preserve a weapon which will always secure me from any
steps which he might take in the future." So it does seem, that Adler has the last
word after all, the upper-hand in the affair. But measures are taken to irrevocably
reverse this intolerable, unstable and unnatural position; the woman may have won
a few battles, but the men will ultimately win the war. First, Adler does leave the
country, assuring that Holmes (and Victorian England) is rid of a potentially
dangerous physical presence; but, that not being enough, Adler must become the
late Irene Adler. This seemingly odd and irrelevant information now takes on full
significance. Dead, the former agent provocateur can no longer pose a threat to the
order of society, and with her disappearance, chaos is safely eliminated.

"A Scandal in Bohemia" is a seminal fin-de-siecle work. Its portrayal of an

infinitely unstable and chaotic world, with constant fluctuations, shifts, decenterings
and reversals of the original order, is an encapsulating illustration of the fears
plaguing the last decades of the nineteenth century. But, while for a brief time the
world is turned upside down by Woman, the ultimate Male world order is finally
restored.